Beslan mothers take grievances to Putin

Last updated at 11:00 02 September 2005

Mothers who lost children in the Beslan school siege are to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask why, a year on, no one has been punished for the official incompetence they say made the bloodshed worse.

The meeting between Putin and members of the outspoken Beslan Mothers' Committee was taking place a year and a day after the start of the three-day hostage crisis that left 331 people - half of them children - dead.

"We will talk about the need ... to punish the guilty and the need to tell the whole world the truth about what happened in Beslan," head of the committee, Susanna Dudiyeva, said today as she boarded a plane for Moscow.

The atmosphere was likely to be tense as the bereaved mothers say the ultimate blame for official failings rests with Putin. It was unusual, too, as the Russian leader steers clear of potentially embarrassing public encounters.

Russian television reported that the delegation of three mothers' committee members and five other Beslan residents had arrived in Moscow for the meeting.

But the Kremlin was keeping the event under tight control. Foreign media had not been invited to film the encounter and a Kremlin spokesman said he had no details on the meeting.